We can deduce this from Acts 5:3-4, where it reads as follow: But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? This role suggests that at least part of the reason why the person of the Holy Spirit may not seem as clearly revealed in the Bible is that he seeks to draw attention to the Son rather than to himself. How to protect your home and break curses! The Holy Spirit is God, a Person, not an energy or a force, just as much as the other two members of the Trinity. 1 Corinthians 2:10-11 says, “No one knows the mind of God except the Spirit of God who searches all things.” He has feelings. They view the Holy Spirit from a human perspective to determine whether or not He is personal. These things are mere forces. The Holy Spirit is not a vague, ethereal life force. 12:13); they are “baptized” (Matt. You cannot lie to electricity, or to a fire. Yet it is not true that the Holy Spirit is always “missing” or “absent” in such visionary experiences. The Holy Spirit can speak (Acts 8:29, 11:12, 13:2)—though some people don’t think the Holy Spirit can speak because they think of the Holy Spirit as an impersonal force, or simply a presence. Chris: It is true that the Holy Spirit is ‘invisible' and is a ‘force', but that does not prevent him from having intelligence, self awareness, will and other personal characteristics; things which no impersonal force such as electricity could possess. Emotions2. Etymology. Obviously the Bible makes the Holy Spirit equal to God. Just before he ascended, Jesus told his disciples that they would receive power to be his witnesses when the Holy Spirit came upon them (Acts 1:8). In this video devo Dennis Pollock teaches that the Holy Spirit is a Person, not a force or mere power, such as electricity or battery power. Not the Father surely? What does the Bible say? ; see also 1 John 2:1 in most English versions) is also translated in other versions as “Comforter” (KJV) or “Helper” (ESV, NASB). 10. As a supernatural force, just like natural forces, it can take on any shape or form that God chooses or sets his mind on. Furthermore, throughout the Bible, the Holy Spirit exhibits the characteristics of a Person, not an inanimate force. The Baptism in the Holy Spirit – teaching by John Iuliano, Keys to Moving in the Supernatural of God, The Price of God’s Miracle-Working Power – A. In Romans 8, Paul describes how the Holy Spirit intercedes (or prays) for believers.He says, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. Michael is the founder of christian-faith.com and New Hope TV, is married to Marilena, has two girls and works as a school teacher in Australia. As mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, outpourings of the Holy Spirit can include healing, prophecy, exorcism, and speaking in tongues. Pray for those you love. The Holy Spirit's name describes his chief attribute: He is a perfectly holy and spotless God, free of any sin or darkness. Some teach that the Holy Spirit is not deity, but a thing, a force. We do not normally speak of being anointed or filled with electricity or to have energy poured out on us. 26:64; Mark 14:62; “the power of God,” Luke 22:69). The Spirit is a person and not merely a force. The following verses demonstrate that the Holy Spirit is indeed personal –after all, he knows, wills, speaks, teaches, intercedes, and has a mind. In its opening words, the Bible speaks of the holy spirit —also rendered “God’s active force”— as “moving to and fro over the surface of the waters.” ( Genesis 1:2 ) In the account of Jesus’ baptism, while God is described as being in “the heavens,” the holy spirit appears “descending like a dove” upon Jesus. Rather, pronouns like “he” and “him” are used by New Testament writers and others to indicate only that the Holy Spirit is personal and relational, not a vague force like … Support Michael's mission work here - paypal link. The Son “testifies” (13:21); the Holy Spirit “testifies” to the Son (15:26). In certain respects it can also be likened to electricity. It is not a person but is a powerful force that God causes to emanate from himself to accomplish his holy will ( Reasoning from the Scriptures 1985, 81). For an overview, see our article on what Jehovah’s Witnesses believe. A Jehovah Witness tract states, “The Bible’s use of ‘holy spirit’ indicates that it is a controlled force that Jehovah God uses to accomplish a variety of his purpose. 5:18) but also says that they should be filled with God (Eph. With regard to Jesus’ statement in John 17:3 about eternal life consisting in knowing the Father and the Son, evidently Jesus did not expect his followers to understand that the Holy Spirit was a distinct divine person until he came into their lives in a transforming way after Jesus’ resurrection (at Pentecost). How do we know? Because the names “Holy Ghost” and “God” have been used interchangeably, we conclude that the Holy Ghost is God. 7. We see Jesus’ teaching about the coming of the Holy Spirit fulfilled in the Book of Acts. The Son came in the Father’s name (5:43); the Spirit would come in the Son’s name (14:26). There are less than a hundred references to the Spirit in the whole Old Testament, whereas in the much shorter New Testament there are roughly 270 references to the Spirit. The Holy Spirt is the third person of the Trinity in traditional, orthodox Christian theology. First, the Holy Spirit is not a “force” or energy or an “it,” but He’s a person. Does Jehovah have an infinite supply of this energy in his localized spirit body? [Blurb on page 22] “On the whole, the New Testament, like the Old, speaks of the spirit as a divine energy or power. The Holy Spirit cannot be pumped and scooped. 4 While it remained, was it not your own? It may be a gentle force, or it may be a strong force. Unknown to most, due to the spiritual blindness inflicted upon most of humanity, there is actually a great and ambitious invisible spirit-being who always wanted to be also “god” and to reign as co-equal with God and the Son. 3:2-4), and elsewhere the Bible states that God is fire (Deut. Some churches say "Don't worry about the Holy Spirit. However, the arguments the Watchtower uses to support this doctrine are not biblically sound. 157-158). The holy spirit is God’s power in action, his active force. His will is, of course, in complete unity with that of the Father and the Son. You can not know Jesus without Him. We saw in a previous article that the Jehovah’s Witnesses view of Jesus Christ makes God remote and uninvolved in his creation because they think that Christ does virtually everything in creation and redemption as God’s agent. You can not know Jesus without Him. Reasoning from the Scriptures (Watchtower, 1995), 204. 3. Such language, which of course is figurative, does not mean that the Holy Spirit is less than personal. The Son and the Spirit both came “from the Father” (15:26; 16:28). Does it go back when its function is complete? He shares the strengths of God the Father and Jesus, such as omniscience, omnipotence, and eternality. When this energy enters into a human being, who is in control of that energy—Jehovah or the human being? The Holy Spirit will only get into the world (via) indwelling your life. (Micah 3:8; Luke 1: 35) God sends out his spirit by projecting his energy to any place to accomplish his will. But, when we start on page one of the Bible, before creation ever even began, we see a depiction of the spirit of God hovering over the dark, disordered waters of … Instead, they believe that the Holy Spirit is an impersonal active force. desiringgod.org. This is all stuff that can't be true of a mere (or even 'The') Force. The personhood of the Spirit is also established by the fact that you can treat the Spirit as a person (pray to him, quench the Spirit, bless the Spirit), and the Spirit performs acts proper to personality—He speaks, commands, strives, to name a few examples. The Holy Spirit came to Jesus’ disciples after Christ left the earth, as recorded in Acts 2. The common feature of many ancient farewell discourses of importance here is that the speaker typically named a successor, someone who would pick up where he left off as a teacher, leader, or ruler. He is a person and if you and I are wise we will treat Him not as POWER but as a PERSON. See also Disclaimer. … In Jehovah’s Witness theology, the “energy” that functions as God’s active force is apparently part of God’s own being, since the Watchtower has repeatedly said it is God’s energy. The JW actively believes that the Holy Spirit is a force, and not a person. The Bible exhorts believers to “taste” that “the Lord is good” (Ps. The Bible also says that “God is light” (1 John 1:5) and refers to Christ as “the light of the world” (John 8:12). The Holy Spirit comes to us from Jesus and has been charged with both directing us to Jesus and transforming our spirits so that we become more like Christ. Holy spirit: Active force can also be referred to as the breath, finger, hand or arm of God. We would not normally expect visions of heaven to include embodied or visible representations of the Holy Spirit because of the distinctive way he works. Misrepresented Spirit? Arguments from silence are unreliable foundations for doctrine.13. Dr. McKay Caston. 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